I’ve been working on a brief reflection to mark my seventy-fifth birthday tomorrow. After a ton of writing, I’ve done three quarters of a ton of cutting. This I couldn’t just leave as scattered pixels into the universe. A bit of a reading list, my core spiritual texts. Maybe they’ll be of some use to you. And in that spirit I offer this list up. For me the... Read more
It is good to sing praise to you, my heart. To give thanks for the blessings of life, To notice love coursing through my body in the morning And faithfulness through the night. I hear our human voices as music, And silence as melody. I delight in your world; You make my body sing with joy. How great is your goodness. How unfathomable your deep currents, Not seen by eyes Not grasped by mind Everything united Everything touching. ... Read more
The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return,... Read more
“An enlightened person who loves alcohol, when they pass the liquor store, their head will still turn.” I spent some time recently pursuing that quote. While one version of it or another is a Zen trope, the person who most likely said it in this form was Taizan Maezumi. Maezumi Roshi is of incalculable importance to me directly and... Read more
According to tradition Bardaisan, or sometimes Bardesanes, was born into a wealthy pagan family in Edessa (today Sanliufa, Turkey) today, on July 11th, 154 in our common era. He was educated with the princes of the Abgar dynasty. He became a Christian and was ordained a priest within the Syriac church. Later he served as an advisor to the royal court. With the fall of Abgar IX, he fled... Read more
The Case this is the song of mehitabel of mehitabel the alley cat as i wrote you before boss mehitabel is a believer in the pythagorean theory of the transmigration of the soul and she claims that formerly her spirit was incarnated in the body of cleopatra that was a long time ago and one must not be surprised if mehitabel has forgotten some of her more regal manners i have had my ups and downs but wotthehell wotthehell... Read more
God. A word that calls forth pain and joy. Hope and fear. And loss, so much loss. People die for that word. People die because of that word. God. And, what is God? What is divine? And how does it relate to this world? As it happens today marks the day in 381, that the Council of Constantinople promulgated... Read more
Fifty-four years ago today, the 5th of July in 1969, I was ordained an unsui, a novice Soto Zen Buddhist priest. The English word “ordain” comes from Latin by way of French and means “put in order, arrange, dispose, appoint.” Ordination is the formal rite dedicating someone to sacred work. It is common across cultures, although the definition of sacred work shifts with various cultures. In Zen in the Japanese tradition in which I was first ordained, this... Read more
Sometime in March of 1845, Henry David Thoreau’s friend the poet Ellery Channing famously advised him, “Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, & there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive. I see no other alternative, no other hope for you.” Few have given anyone better advice. And, in the rarest of confluences, Thoreau saw the wisdom... Read more
Today, the 3rd of July, the Roman church marks out as the feast of St Thomas, called the Doubter. The Orthodox tend to prefer October 6th. The Episcopal church marks his feast on the 21st of December, and generally I like their calendar best. But here’s an opportunity to share why I love Thomas so much. So… While I love Jesus and am... Read more
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